law, can create property; that it is an effect without a cause:
am I censurable?

But murmurs arise!

PROPERTY IS ROBBERY! That is the war-cry of '93! That is the
signal of revolutions!

Reader, calm yourself: I am no agent of discord, no firebrand of
sedition. I anticipate history by a few days; I disclose a truth
whose development we may try in vain to arrest; I write the
preamble of our future constitution. This proposition which
seems to you blasphemous--PROPERTY IS ROBBERY--would, if our
prejudices allowed us to consider it, be recognized as the
lightning-rod to shield us from the coming thunderbolt; but too
many interests stand in the way! . . . Alas! philosophy will not
change the course of events: destiny will fulfill itself
regardless of prophecy. Besides, must not justice be done and
our education be finished?

PROPERTY IS ROBBERY! . . . What a revolution in human ideas!
PROPRIETOR and ROBBER have been at all times expressions as
contradictory as the beings whom they designate are hostile; all
languages have perpetuated this opposition. On what authority,
then, do you venture to attack universal consent, and give the
lie to the human race? Who are you, that you should question the
judgment of the nations and the ages?

Of what consequence to you, reader, is my obscure individuality?
I live, like you, in a century in which reason submits only to